1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a connection control apparatus for controlling acceptance of an incoming call from a caller and in particular to a method of taking steps when a call is made in a state where an incoming call cannot be accepted.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, the real-time communication field in which a caller calls a callee for conducting real-time communications as demanded has been diversified. Not only real-time communications implemented using videophones capable of sending video together with voice in addition to conventional telephones capable of sending only voice, but also those on an IP network for making it possible to transfer audio, video, and data are becoming realistic.
Accordingly, the types of communication terminals have also been diversified. Not only dedicated terminals specialized only for voice conversation such as conventional telephones, but also general-purpose machines such as personal computers are used as communication terminals. With the dedicated terminal such as a conventional telephone, a standby state is always maintained and a response can be returned immediately when a call is received.
However, in the case of using a personal computer, etc. as a communication terminal, the communication terminal is not necessarily placed in a state where it can accept call. For example, when the personal computer is powered off, is in a resume mode or is placed out of the service area if a radio medium such as a radio LAN is used as a communication line, even if a called user can respond to call, the user can not necessarily deal immediately with call from any caller at any moment.
To prepare for such a case, an Internet telephone unit for notifying a user of an incoming call if at least the called machine recognizes that the machine is called, and cannot receive the call for some reason has been proposed (JP 2002-237906 A).